Contact: info@lenaemery.com / instagram
Books & Prints: mail@surolab.com
Commercial: models.com/lena-c-emery
About
Deeply influenced by the aesthetic and animistic philosophies of Japan, Emery’s nuanced perspective is at once delicate as well as probing. In 2021 Emery was selected one of the Decade of Change Award Winners, a global environmental initiative conceived to harness the universal power of the arts to galvanise climate action, curated amongst others by Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Agreement.
Born in Germany, Emery grew up between Asia and Europe and upon receiving a Fine Art scholarship from Parsons Paris, moved from a small island in Indonesia to France.
Emery’s work has been published by Gestalten, Rizzoli, Kominek, SPBH and Art Paper Editions and exhibited at institutions such as Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art London, The Nest Summit New York, Asama International Photo Festival Miyota, The Climate Change Museum Hong Kong.
The BJP selected Emery’s book ‘Rie’ as one of the most engaging & exciting projects of the year in 2016. Her second book Yuka & The Forest (printed on 100% recycled paper, 30% of profits donated to the WWF), which draws on Japan’s powerful cultural connection to forests, was exhibited within the Prix du Livre d’Auteur in Arles in 2019.
“When I first picked up Rie, I immediately knew this wasn’t an ordinary book of nudes. This openness creates pictures much like a breath of fresh air. Emery is certainly a portraitist and bookmaker whose work I will continue to keep an eye on.”
– Todd Hido, Fine Art Photographer
“In the battle of representation, Emery’s work surrounding the climate crisis has returned to a place that is quieter, somewhere a little less painful but at the same time doesn’t let us forget the dark weight that is pressing down on the world. Her images show a place that is some distance from the entrenched view of humans as subject and the world as an object, and offers a renewed perception of symbiosis.”
– Kris Kozlowski Moore ‘Yuka & The Forest’
Activism
Emery has worked closely with animal welfare and environmental groups such as the RSPCA and Trees for Cities for almost a decade. She follows a plant based diet and campaigns against the use of fur and exotic skins. Partial profits from Emery’s book and print sales have been donated to the World Wide Fund For Nature (INT), More Trees (Japan), The Ere Foundation (FR), The Canopee Foundation (FR), Black Minds Matter (UK), The Black Curriculum (UK), Exists Loudly (UK), Elmhurst Hospital (USA) and WIRES (AU).
EMERY: As a teenager I was incredibly inspired by the journey and works of naturalist, artist and author Joy Adamson in my grandmother’s bookshelf: ‘Since we humans have the better brain, isn’t it our responsibility to protect our fellow creatures from, oddly enough, ourselves? Wildlife is something which man cannot construct. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Man can rebuild a pyramid, but he can’t rebuild ecology, or a giraffe.’ she wrote. Two months after graduating from high school, inspired by Adamson’s commitment to wildlife conservation, I moved to a small island in Southeast Sulawesi, where my father and friends had set up a dive resort through which they were able to establish one of the largest privately-funded marine protected areas. At the time we were about 15 people on the island, without reception and only a boat that came every two weeks to pick up and drop off divers and supplies. After two decades of collaborative conservation in partnership with the indigenous population on its surrounding islands, Wakatobi was named a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve with the highest number of reef and fish species in the world.
Publications
Atmos, British Vogue, British Journal of Photography, Dazed, M Le Magazine du Monde, Pleasure Garden, Pop, Purple, System, The Gentlewoman, WSJ
Clients
Calvin Klein, Chanel, Chloe, De Beers, Dior, Helmut Lang, Hermes, Lemaire, Mulberry, Stella McCartney, Tiffany & Co, Victoria Beckham